This is not a panel write up; it’s more of a rambling meander of panels I was on and panels I witnessed and thoughts I had along the way. It includes recommendations. But all of it is talking about Asian (mostly Southeast Asian) science fiction, fantasy and horror.

Thanks to Creatrix Tiara(sorry, Adeline coined this term!), I’m referring to Oz-based PoC involved in SFFH as Fae of Colour and I have no regrets. Hopefully you also have no regrets.

I was supposed to start with something nicer, rounding up my Continuum 13, but all I can really think about is the racial micro aggressions PoC experience at Australian conventions, particularly the micro aggressions experienced by our PoC Guests of Honour, and the ways in which con goers can prepare to have our backs (our own, and the backs of others).

And so, beneath the fold: some racial micro aggressions, and some ways to prepare to call them out.

Micro aggressions and the other things we say; or, First Aid for paper cuts

No Award went to Continuum! As we often do, being Melbourne fans of a certain persuasion. We didn’t get to many panels we weren’t on, so rather than doing an overview of the whole con, we thought we’d do a couple of individual posts about things that arose.

The first in this series is about the Con Runners Confab, which was not a panel so much as an informal discussion between past and future con runners about convention culture in Australia (and New Zealand) and its evolution and future.

This post is as unstructured as the confab itself was, but Liz hopes it serves as a jumping off point for ideas about new models of fan gatherings, and recognition of the people who put the work into building and maintaining places (real and virtual) where fans gather.

Gosh, it’s been a few weeks since the last linkspam! We’ve just been really tired. And busy.

(Maybe don’t get your hopes up too high for a linkspam next Friday — Liz is usually the one to hit post, because she’s most likely to be at a computer, and she’s leaving work early for Continuum set-up.)